As I entered a super-mega-store yesterday, I was greeted by a professional greeter with a semi-cheerful “hello.” How cheerful can you really be when you greet thousands of people daily? I responded with an equally semi-cheerful “how ya’ doin’?” Big mistake!
As I headed towards him to take the cart he had in his hands that I thought he was offering me, I quickly peeled off and headed toward the cart corral to make another choice as I noticed that his cart, the one that I thought he wanted to be my cart, was holding his oxygen tank.
Let’s recap …
- He’s old.
- He’s a greeter at a super-mega-store.
- He’s on oxygen.
And I go and give him a “how ya’ doin’?” How do I think he’s freakin’ doing? Not good! To top it off, he gave me the same semi-cheerful “hello” just a minute later when I walked past him again. You can possibly add Alzheimer’s to the list above.
But on the plus side, he was able to keep up a semi-cheerful facade at work when millions in this world struggle to appear semi-cheerful at anytime in their lives. Maybe I wasn’t too out of line with my “how ya’ doin?” Certainly he’s more cheerful than a Fox News watcher or Trump supporter.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 